Waiting Badniks
by Mechabite
Summary: A series of highly unfortunate events leads Sonic into the hands of some old enemies who want nothing more than to hand him over to the evil man, Dr. Eggman. /Please Read&Review!/
1. Where They All Went

Robotic humanoid roosters were not a common sight on the planet of Mobius. In fact, there was really only one in existence at the present time. Standing tall and erect, with hands placed purposefully on his hips, you could almost say he looked majestic. Almost.

The rusted robot's name was Scratch, and he was one of the many dismissed robots that Dr. Ivo Julian Robotnik had made in his long legacy of terror. Badniks, as they were commonly referred to, and this one had been out of work for some time. A worn collar and belt hugged his frame while a rose red patched up plume stuck up on his round head. Two red tail feathers also protruded just below his belt, and although dirty and shredded they were still held proudly high. As the robot was modeled after a rooster, a stubby beak also stuck to the front of his face, the dulled yellow color matching his legs.

The badnik stood just outside of a dense forest, clogged up with shrubbery that the regular Mobian would not wander in without proper equipment. This was the reason Scratch was here, to be safe from the world. In the densest parts of this forest robots of all kinds attempted to exist. Attempted, because it was hard for any robot to function without the occasional check up. Especially Robotnik's robots. They were built to need someone to care for them. Yet the majority of those laid off would come here anyways, and the majority of them lived mostly because the care of their brethren.

Unknown to most, this forest buzzed with artificial life. Scratch had been one of the first, as he had lived there almost 10 years. That was a long time for a robot to be out of work. He had been dumped with his 'brother', Grounder. Grounder was a green lump of a bot with over 300 accessories crammed into his short frame. The two hardly resembled each other, but they had been built at the same time so they had bonded and stuck together out of instinct. You needed a buddy to live out here. Yet, the robotic rooster had come out alone.

To be truthful, he was tired of all this. He wanted to belong somewhere, not make a home for himself as he had been doing. He wanted to serve again, wanted to be oiled, and most of all...he wanted someone to care. Eyes narrowed, the robot looked out over the landscape. Tapping one clawed foot impatiently, he waited.

Suddenly, something at the far end of the valley he was looking over shot in and out of Scratch's view. It could be described as an azure blur, riding the wind. The grass it had passed momentarily became disturbed before gently drifting back into place.

The badnik's beak curved into a slight smile, eyes still narrowed. He waited every day for that, oddly enough to most. He had become very patient over the years, and he could wait for hours at a time for this once a week occurrence. Yet, he chose to wait for a blue blur that could only be seen from his spot for less than a second.

Why? Because that blur had once been his objective. His livelihood, and the whole reason that his Master had created him. A hedgehog. That's what it was. A simple creature it seemed, but it was also the fastest creature on Mobius.

The Mobians were anthropomorphic animals, and some acquired amazing abilities for no thinkable reason. This hedgehog, called Sonic, was one of them. He could outrun almost anything, and could even, on special occasions, break the sound barrier. Three feet tall, red sneakers, and a startling blue color on his quills, he was the hero of Mobius.

Well, he was no hero to the badnik. His sensors went berserk, and his vision lit up with alerts, his original objective lighting up in front of his eyes:'GET THAT HEDGEHOG BRING HIM TO YOUR MASTER QUICK ITS NOT TOO LATE!'

But Scratch didn't even flinch, he just stood and watched the blur disappear. He could wait. He could always wait because someday...someday...he would get Sonic. And then his Master would take him back. And then everything would be OK again. No more rust, no more self-repairs, and no more hiding.

"Soon, hedgehog. Soon!" The scratchy voice that gave the badnik his name quietly rasped. Then the badnik turned and strutted stiffly back into the dark forest, content to wait until the time came when he would once and for all complete his purpose.


	2. Odd Behavior

/I know I made that first chapter rather serious for the characters, and I'm sorry! Hopefully I can have them act more like themselves as I addapt to writing them./

Even though the majority of the robots had had to learn to survive, there was one stupnik among them that unquestionably only survived because of his brother, Scratch. And that bot was Grounder.

The small pudgy robot was at present making tracks through the dense forest, opticals stretched wide in worry.

"Scratch!" The badnik yelled in a low voice, looking left and right as his caterpillar tracks crushed all foliage under them. Although obviously worried, Grounder was quite fed up with his brother. Every week he went missing for an hour or so, and then wandered back into 'camp' as if nothing had happened.

"Scratch if you don't come back..then I'll drink your oil rations myself!" He paused, lower lip protruding on his flexible and very expressive face. After hearing nothing he decided to continue to threaten,"And I'll enjoy it to!"

Still nothing, and Grounder sighed angrily. Scratch had been distant lately, and the badnik was not happy about that. The robot rooster was the only one that would protect him from his own stupidity and faults while no other robot seemed to be able to tolerate him.

Of course, Grounder did not refer to himself as stupid. He more liked to think along the lines of being 'intelligence challenged'.

A twig snapped, but to one alone in a forest it sounded like gunfire. The green bot jumped about a foot, drill bit arms waving, and giving an over-exaggerated howl.

"Oh, calm down! It's just me, you sap!" Shoving a large leafy plant out of his path, the familiar form of Scratch came through the brush. A wide, almost sheepish grin came over Grounder's face before his brow furrowed and a look of pure malice came over him.

Rolling over to his brother slowly for affect, Grounder then hit one of the bird's metallic legs as hard as he could muster with his sharp, pointy nose. While Scratch yelped in pain and jumped back, the fat green bot just scowled. Mood changes were quite regular with him.

"I've been looking everywhere for you, you chicken you!" Insult wars were quite popular for the two. Whoever won was the one who had the better comeback.

"Why can't you just be normal and hang out with everyone at camp!?" The taller badnik stalked angrily past Grounder, towards the direction of said position.

"Because they don't wanna!" Grounder complained, wheeling around to follow,"They say they don't wanna 'babysit' me. Whatever that means! I don't need nobody to sit on me."

Scratch rolled his eyes. Almost ten years, and Grounder still couldn't seem to find any friends besides himself. Sure, he got along with others, but 'hanging out' was completely out of the question. As well as that, the AI's in the camp seemed to form groups, even though the whole of them acted as a pack. It happened quite naturally. Swat bots with Swat bots, service bots seemed to clump well, but Scratch, Grounder...and occasionally Coconuts, a small badnik modeled after a chimp, would stay in their own odd group.

A good ten minutes of walking -and rolling- brought the two to their destination. A clearing almost perfectly centered in the middle of the dense forest. Poor shelters were built in it, made mostly from the foliage around them. The robots didn't have many materials to use, and thus the huts had to be regularly re-built.

Several bots could be seen zipping to and from each spot, being busybodies. It was important to keep yourself busy out here, for a theory of the AI's was that if you stalled, you died.

"...And besides that, you don't seem to like me anymore either!" Grounder had finished his speech and Scratch had hardly heard a thing of it. The rooster gave an annoyed glance down.

"I do like you, Grounder! I just need my own personal sometimes."

Grounder seemed to find offense in this,"But you hate being alone! You said so yourself only five years or so ago!"

"Ergh..." And this was the reason he liked some privacy. Scratch was the said to be the smartest of the badniks (which was not saying much for the whole lot of them) and took unfortunate pride in it. He would brag, and scoff at others supposed stupidity when he was not better off himself. He also would enforce his need of thinking space even if all he did was take a recharging power nap.

By then the two had gone to the largest of the huts, not to mention the most impressive of them all. Being some of the oldest badniks to come to this forest had its bright sides. Scratch had had lots of time to learn how to make a structure that lasted and could weather storms. Once he had achieved this he decorated, as usually there was not much else to do. Soda cans and other shiny pieces of metal or garbage hung from strings around the entrance, putting a much needed color on the hut, as it was mostly wood brown and sick pale green.

"Maybe if you tried, oh I don't know, being a little less stupid, then people would like you more!" The robotic chicken had to duck to get into the entrance and then sat down in the dark inside, picking up some large dry leaves that the robots used as paper.

The inside was also decorated with smears of maroon paint made from berries all over the well put together walls of large leaves and the occasional thin sheet of scrap metal.

"Hey...was that an insult?" Grounder frowned pointedly.

"No...I was being nice! Now give me a pen."

"Aw, your so sweet, Scratch!" Tounge sticking out the side of his mouth, the now happy robot fished a pen from his inner compartment, as he never seemed to run out of them, and handed it over.

Scratch started scribbling on the paper. He couldn't read very well, couldn't write recognizably, but he was a decent artist. Years of boredom had done the least for him.

"Watcha drawing?" Grounder looked over his shoulder wonderingly. Grounder still couldn't read, write, or make a piece of art that could be identified. The only thing Grounder was decent at was the construction of other robot's huts.

The rooster held the sketched plan out of Grounder's view.

"None of your business, junk pile!" He had a nasty habit of insulting his brother extensively,"Now go do something else."

Grounder scowled, starting to obediently tread away. He'd find out later anyways when his big brother was sleeping. Scratch had never been a light sleeper.

As the badnik rolled out, several small assistant bots gave him an overly cheerful greeting as they shot by. It was always important to them to keep their spirits up. After all, tragedy was a regular thing at camp and it was hard to cope with the loss of less fortunate others.

"Hmph." He folded his arms uncomfortably, listening to Scratch start to cackle inside. Sometimes Grounder could swear that the chicken had finally popped a piston.


	3. Hero's Mistake

/Decided to continue this little story of mine anyways~ Please R&R and tell me any ideas you might have on it!/

Although it was buried deep into the back corners of his mind, Sonic the Hedgehog still remembered the old days. He still remembered when it was just him and his best buddy Tails the two-tailed fox fighting Robotnik's limited badniks. Those had been the days of especially odd robots like the robot rooster, and the small green blob of a tank.

But then things had changed drastically.

Robotnik -adopting the new name Eggman- had suddenly become an actual threat. Ridding himself of his old machines, AIs, and his old base, he then began building robots that were a challenge for the blue hedgehog to beat. Sonic had been forced to grow up, to take things more seriously. Of course, he was a fun loving child at heart. Always had been, and nothing could knock that out of him. He was only 15, after all.

What had it been? Eight years approximately since Dr. Ivo seemingly lost it and had changed. Sonic didn't like to think about the past, he was always about the present. However, at times like this when the air was warm and the wind rushed past his face he couldn't help but smile at those memories. Smile and frown.

He had done a lot of foolish things that he regretted now. He had lost good friends, he had made good friends. He had met so many people on his journeys, had had so many great adventures, and had found the best places to order chili dogs in the world. Sure he had pride issues, but even though he himself recognized that, he never bother to fix it. After all, he had never lost!

Shaking his head, Sonic then remembered where he was going. Sometimes he got a little too caught up in his mind. With a sharp turn, the hedgehog rapidly changed direction. For Sonic, it was a 30 second run to Tails' workshop.

Said workshop sat in the open, it's bright red roof shining from the bright sun. The outside walls were polished and clean, but the inside was a different story. As the blue blur strutted calmly in, he had to kick all kinds of mechanical tools out of his path.

"Hey, bud!" The bright orange fox lifted his head abruptly from his work at Sonic's voice.

"Sonic!" Tails smiled, putting a wrench down and backing away from the blue bi-plane he had been repairing,"What's up?"

"Sheesh, I've only been gone for a couple hours!" Sonic rolled his eyes.

"I mean did Eggman attack you with anything, or did you find something cool out." The fox flicked one ear flatly at his friend.

"Ah-ha," The hedgehog flopped loosely onto an oil-stained purple couch placed against one wall,"Nah, Eggy's really been losing his touch."

"That's a good thing, you know! More time for me to get the bugs out of this plane." The bi-plane could actually transform into a turbo boosted jet if it wanted to, as well as eject bombs, shoot lasers, and give guests a complimentary bag of peanuts.

Sonic rubbed his face with his hands,"Yeah, but he's been 'taking a break' for two weeks now, and I'm getting bored!"

Tails raised an eyebrow, pulling his work gloves off,"You have nothing else to do?"

"I've done everything!" Sonic cut in,"I've visited a whole bunch of people, I've taken several hundred runs, I even broke into Eggman's base and destroyed some of his robots just for fun!"

"You what...?"

"It's like a really bad summer vacation." The hedgehog sighed, folding his arms while putting his shoes up on the arm of the couch.

Tails walked over and stared down at his gloomy friend exasperatedly,"So you mean to tell me that if Eggman ever retires for good, you'll have nothing to do?"

Sonic raised his eyes,"I dunno, that hasn't happened yet." As implied before, Sonic was a here and now type of guy.

"You're sad." Sonic scowled up as Tails grinned playfully, gesturing back to the plane,"Wanna go for a fly?"

"You just said you were working out the bugs."

"Well that just means that the flight could be dangerous." The two-tailed fox pointed out.

"Then count me in!" Sonic practically bounced off the couch, eyes lighting up. He was a huge sucker for excitement and adrenalin.

Minutes later the bi-plane was soaring through the air, doing better than Tails had though. Every once in a while the engine would give a loud snort and the plane would rock, but it stabled out well enough after.

Sonic was perched on one wing, just standing as if falling off was out of the question. It was, really. Sonic had stood just fine on a plane since he was young. Somehow, unless the plane pulled into a nose dive, the hedgehog never even had to hold on to anything.

The air was fresh and cold way up, and the view was spectacular as there were no clouds. Sonic could see miles away without even squinting. Trees showing off their new spring leaves, fields of flowers, large sparkling crystal colored lakes. Mobius had always been one of the most beautiful planets.

The blue blue stepped forward, and leaning over slightly, stared down.

"Hey Tails?" He yelled, trying to catch his buddy's attention over the howl of the wind.

"Yeah?" The fox looked up just slightly from the cockpit.

"Wanna try out that new weapon system?"

"Why?"

Sonic pointed down seemingly excited,"I see some Swatbots down there!"

"Oh, ok!"

Indeed a very small cluster of them were below, moving several shiny plates of metal towards a forest. Sonic would not have seen them if not the sun had shone so brightly off the sheets. It was odd, though. They seemed to have taken the metal from a village not far off. Why would Eggman want them to steal such trivial objects? No matter, for the hedgehog never passed up a chance to destroy them.

"Fire!" He shouted, pumping a fist into the air.

A large lethal looking gun ejected from the bottom of the bi-plane, being aiming at the robots. With a bang that shook the craft, the gun had fired. After finding his balance again, Sonic peered over the edge. A bunch of drifting smoke from the eliminated bots greeted his view.

"Yeah! We got 'em Tails!"

"What?!"

"WE GOT THEM!" Looking down, Sonic could see more robots through the tops of the trees,"There's more, Buddy! I don't know what they're doing, but we should give them a wake up call!"

"Sure!" The gun fired several times into the top of the forest.

"I think we got those too!" Sonic shouted, peering below.

"Great! Now maybe we should land, fuel is leaking somewhere!"

"Yeah, maybe."

The plane made a wide slow turn, as Tails was attempting to be careful with it. By the time the workshop was back in view, the plane was rocking violently while sputtering noises erupted often.

"Uh-Oh!" Tails said just loudly enough for his friend to turn his head.

"What?" Sonic barked.

"We just ran out of fuel! Were going to have to drift, or face a crash landing!" The fox sounded worried.

"Well let's go with the crash landing, that sounds more exciting!"

"Sonic!"

"I was kidding, jeez!"

The plane's nose leaned towards the ground. Landing gear already operational, the bi-plane hit the ground at an exceptionally fast speed. Every pebble on the dirt run-way felt like a boulder to those riding in and on.

"Hold on!" Tails warned as the plane coasted a little fleetingly towards the entrance of the shop.

"Holding on, good buddy!" Sonic clutched the edge of the wing he had been on top of, ears back in anticipation.

The plane barreled right through the large doors and into the shop, nose burying itself in the other side of the building. Papers flew everywhere, plus several loud bangs issued from every other working machine the plane had hit.

"Great." The twin tailed fox pulled his goggles back, pulling himself carefully out of the plane.

"Great? That was awesome!" The blue blur landed on the ground after a fancy flip in the air,"We gotta do that again, Tails!"

"Yeah, after I fix the impending damage." Tails sighed, walking carefully around the plane to survey the new damage,"Oh, well! Now I know what was wrong with it."

"That's the spirit!" Sonic clapped Tails' shoulder,"Now, I'm gonna go retire for the night. See you later, Bud!"

"See you Sonic..." The fox figured that not much sleep would befall himself tonight.

In a cloud of dust, Sonic had disappeared. Out of sight, out of mind, so Tails began to clean up. Smoke drifted lazily up from several destroyed machanisms. Dim light cast long ominous shadows across the ground as the sun started to set. It was very peaceful, perhaps too peaceful. But Tails enjoyed it since to him,everyday could be an adventure.


	4. The Other Side of Things

/Look two chapters in one day!...and now I'm trying to get the action started. Read&Review PLEASE! And enjoy~/

It had been rather quiet in the forest. So quiet and peaceful that the lanky robot rooster, Scratch, had decided to stay back at camp with his brother instead of blue blur watching. Every once in a while, this gloomy lifestyle the reject robots had come to know became bearable. On days such as this with the sun shining cheerfully down on their huts, while a cool breeze blew for relief the robots kicked back a little and had some fun.

Some days, they played cards. Other days, a crude version of marbles (none of them knew how to play the actual game). But on days like this, a special game was reserved.

The game they played was one that many Mobian children played on hot days. Using small water pistols they had put together themselves, they split into teams and ran about the village and some parts of the dense forest. Water would squirt through the air if one team confronted the other, one side would retreat, and the victorious team would either pursue or go another direction. Simple, but it helped keep a good spirit up.

Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts were, of course, on one team. The service bots had split into a couple of teams, and the repair bots were on one powerful team of their own. The Swatbots had, instead of playing, gone on a mission to get some sheets of scrap metal from the nearest town's dump. It wasn't stealing if no one wanted it.

Scratch was in a particularly competitive mood today because his team had already been soaked four times in the first hour of the game. Not like it really mattered, but the rooster had his pride and wanted to be the team on top at least once.

"Shhhhh!" The rooster badnik warned his teammates, pushing one finger to the tip of his beak,"I hear someone!"

"Oh yeah,"Coconuts jibed with his obnoxiously high voice laced with a Brooklyn accent,"Just like the other four times you heard someone!"

"Hush, I'm serious this time!" Parting some thick vines, Scratch saw a small pack of service bots, moving in a strategic pattern of a diamond, each looking a different direction. This particular squadron had doused them twice already.

"You weren't kidding!" Grounder chimed happily, peering through some underbrush,"I can't wait to see the look on their faces when we come in there an-!"

Coconuts smacked a hand over the green badnik's mouth, tail lashing back and forth angrily,"Do you want to be heard, stupid?"

The green badnik shoved angrily at the robotic chimp,"I'm not stupid! I'm intellectually challenged!"

"Shut up!" Scratch hissed, losing his temper. The other team would see them! Not like there were winners or losers in this game, but there was a bragging right.

And then suddenly they were surrounded by the small team of service bots, each holding a water pistol at the end of their small clawed hands. Their leader glided forward, as most service bots hovered.

**"Shall we end them boys?"** They were not known for having much expression in their voices.

**"YES! YES! YES!"** The other three chanted, shivering in quiet anticipation. By this time, Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts had their hands raised high above their heads, not wanting another soaking. Scratch was even kneeling for added effect.

**"READY."** The robots put their fingers on the gun's trigger.

**"AIM."** More shivering, as well as some smoke issuing from a couple that were over-eager. Grounder had assumed a position of prayer.

**"FIRE!"**

However, robots never had a chance to. And explosion went off not to far away, and all four service bots startled with squeaks of fear. Coconuts shriek would of busted an eardrum, while Scratch and Grounder hugged each other. All seven figures looked upwards to see a plane high above them. A bi-plane, it looked like. The blue color painted on it was still visible from where they were huddled.

Most of the service bots took off in different directions through the foliage, one shrieking,"**THE MASTER HAS FOUND US RUN THERE IS NO REDEMPTION!"**

A few Swatbots ran past the three badniks left, a few charred. One was even smoking badly from his back panel.

**"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"** One of the Swatbots yelled at Scratch as they went by.

Scratch took no time to scramble to his feet and start running, in his rush he even used Grounder's face as a launch pad.

"Ow! Scratch! Wait up!" Grounder and Coconuts followed quickly, getting their bearings.

Another explosion went off right behind them, bathing the world momentarily in a red and orange hue. The shock wave sent all three crashing to the ground, hands splayed out in an attempt to catch themselves.

Scratch pulled his hands over his head, a terrified crow emitting. Coconuts ran past yelling again, a flame burning on the tip of his tail while the siren on his head wailed. It was chaos. Absolute chaos. Whatever had been shot out of that laser had been flammable and fire now decorated the trees, pulling them to ash. Even the water pistols couldn't help such a situation.

"Scratch?" The addressed rooster turned his head slightly to see Grounder's head looking questionably at him. Fortunately, most of Grouder was meant to be detachable,"Can you help me pull myself together?"

Without a word, Scratch picked himself stiffly off the ground. A fine soot covered him from head to clawed toe, and his own tail feathers were smothering. He looked up at the figure of the bi-plane as the large gun protruding from under it started firing again.

The ground rocked as one hit not too far away. Scratch cowered again, curling into a ball. Violent tremors shuddered the dirt, the smell of smoke curled thickly through the trees, and the sound of robots shrieking for all they were worth sounded above everything. Their home was being destroyed. There was nothing they could do about it.

Then it all stopped. Fire still crackled along the treetops and the shrieking didn't silence, but the firing had ceased. Nothing moved for several minutes as the sounds died off.

Scratch lifted his head warily, glancing around at the wreckage. The wonderful, laid back day had turned ugly fast. Looking up, the badnik could still see the faint outline of the plane. No, that had not been one of their old Master's machines. That plane could belong to only one person: Sonic.

He had seen Sonic fly in it before. Many times, and not once had this ever happened. Perhaps because whenever a flying machine was heard in the robot village, they would hide. You could never be too sure. But no one had warned them. There had been no look out on this one day.

Still in shock, the robot glanced beside him to see Grounder's head knocked over onto it's side. The green badnik's eyes were stretched wide, looking traumatized.

"Scratch?" The head trembled slightly,"I wanna go home."

Agreeing silently and hoping that there was a home to go to, the rooster picked his friend's head up and started shakily gathering other parts. Fortunately, Grounder's body had for the most part stuck together. Once the head was connected, he could function again and start putting himself back together. Scratch just watched, wanting to delay the time when they had to go back to camp.

After reattaching his right arm, Grounder looked up frowning at his brother.

"What happened?"

"I...I..."Scratch sighed,"Let's go back to camp."

Camp was a disaster. Most of the shots had hit it almost directly and some service bots were trying to save the huts that were salvageable.

Scratch and Grounder's hut was gone. Bits of the decorations that had been hanging on the entrance were scattered everywhere, shining brightly as if nothing had gone wrong. A few robots were huddled together to a side, mourning. Everything was so eerily silent.

The pair walked slowly in. Scratch stopped near a couple Swatbots, folding his arms and bowing his long flexible neck.

"How many...?"

**"REPORT: ALL SWATBOTS ELIMINATED BUT FRED AND I. 4 SERVICE BOTS ELIMINATED. 3 MISSING. MISSING: SB-29A, SB-54K, SB-98G, AND COCONUTS-SBHC1. 3 REPAIR BOTS STILL FUNCTION."** The Swatbot paused,"**DO YOU THINK THAT OUR OLD MASTER ATTACKED US?"**

Scratch shook his head, eyes squeezed shut,"No. It wasn't him."

It had been that hedgehog, and the rooster badnik knew it. He had known that Sonic was evil, and now he had proof. This just gave him a better reason to get that hedgehog once and for all. For good.

Glancing over, he saw Grounder at the edge of the woods, calling for the missing robots.

That hedgehog was going to get it.


	5. Pay Up Time

**/Here we go again! Yeah, I hope this book isn't too boring for you all~ I also changed the description to match how the story is leading./**

All Scratch had ever needed was a push. He had always thought about how it might feel to become employed again, become cared for again, and how nice it would be for him and his friends to move out of the forest. He had been mad before for Sonic getting him out of his job in the first place; but now he was furious. His home was destroyed, a lot of his friends were permanently eliminated, and three were missing to boot.

Now he was determined, now he was ready. He was ready to complete that wishful thinking he had been pondering on. He was ready to fulfill his purpose once and for all.

And this time, he wasn't about to wait for Sonic. He was going after him.

How unfortunate for the hedgehog who knew nothing of the disasters he had caused just two short days ago. He was too busy fighting Eggman (AKA Dr. Ivo Julian Robotnik), who had taken that precise day to launch an attack on Sonic himself in the middle of a flat plain. The overweight man was fed up, flustered, and incredibly ticked off.

Sitting in his Egg-O-Matic, mustache twitching in agitation, all he could do was watch as Sonic destroyed bot after bot. So many years, and yet not one robot he had ever built could stop that puny little hedgehog. It was shameful, really. He had once taken over the whole world. Rebellions hadn't stopped him, spies hadn't assassinated him to stop his reign. No, a small eight year old hedgehog had stopped him. Hairless eyebrows furrowed over his blue tinted glasses as a scowl came over his face. Sonic was not eight anymore, but he was just as pesky as ever.

His biggest fighter robot was being destroyed, as the blue blur had found it's weak spot, the forehead. Sonic would dodge a vicious swipe, then jump high and deliver a pounding blow to the middle of the robot's head. The robot was beginning to smoke, and little veins of blue electricity spread over it's frame.

Ivo's white gloved hands clutched into fists. One of his current assistance bots popped up from behind his chair to watch the action. The robot, called Orbot, was rather small with a half orb shaped shiny red head and two blue opticals squinted with worry. He tapped his Boss's shoulder with a crimson gloved hand.

"Boss? Boss, I think...I think Sonic's winning."

If looks could kill, the robot's circuits would of fried.

"Ay be rooting for d'Boss!" Another robot, similar to the other but yellow in color and cube shaped popped up on the other side of Eggman's chair, waving a small flag with Eggman's logo on it.

"Oh shut up, you malfunctioning hunk of junk!"The man swiped a hand at the bot who retreated only slightly,"It's obvious that that spiky blue pain in the rear is, once again, going to beat me!"

The yellow robot disregarded Eggman's second comment,"Ay have a name y'know. Cubots it, doen't ware t'out!"

Grabbing the controls, Ivo's carrier started to fly off. Sonic, standing in a heroic pose atop the large robot's remains, watched it go. A smile spread up the side of his face.

"Think ya' can get away that easy, huh?" With a boost of speed the blue blur went soaring after his competition.

"Boss? Hey, Boss?" Orbot began to tug at Eggman's red sleeve,"Boss? He's pursuing! Sonic is following us! Boss?"

Ivo was just about at the end of his rope with these two. Gritting his teeth audibly, he jolted the carrier on purpose just to hear them clang together in the back.

"fffftttttzzzz...Hoooowdyyy!" The jolt had caused Cubot's non-functioning voice chip to choose a new theme: cowboy,"Did y'all see dat?! He's gunna whup us f'shore! Lookit 'im go!"

"SHUT UP OR I'LL DISMANTLE YOU BOTH!"

Sonic was indeed gaining. His legs had blurred into a prominent figure eight shape for extra speed.

Looking intently into his mirrors, Eggman could see that something would need to be done if he did indeed not want his butt, 'whupped', as Cubot coined it.

"Orbot!" He barked,"Fire at him!"

"Yes, sir!" Orbot said cheerfully, always happy to pander to the will of his Boss. He started setting up the controls for a mini gun that fired out of the back of the craft.

Sonic dodged the first bullet,"Whoa!"

Looked like Eggman was getting a little too confident in his robots. Time to show him better!

With an added burst of speed, Sonic jumped high into the air, spinning at an intense rate. This spinning was to make a hole, or at least a dent in the carrier.

However, the unexpected happened. A sharp pain erupted up one of Sonic's legs as a bullet pierced his skin. Orbot had actually hit him! The blue blur still hit the side of the craft, but instead of landing gracefully back on the ground, he plummeted.

"Um, Boss?" After the orb shaped robot had adjusted himself from the rocking the ship had done, he watched Sonic fall,"I...I think I hit him!"

Eggman didn't even turn to look,"Don't be ridiculous! You of all people couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!"

"He could hit tha broad side of you ifn't he wanted ta." Cubot cut in, opticals squinting in dislike.

"...I'll deal with you later."

Sonic hit the ground as lightly as he could help, although he had banged himself up quite a bit anyways. He watched the craft speed off in the air, leaving a thin trail of white exhaust in it's wake. He could hardly believe that he had actually been hit. He was almost in shock. Almost.

The blue blur was not one that could be put down for long. One thing was for sure in his mind though: He needed to get to somewhere fast for help. Glancing around with a face twisted with pain, Sonic knew that civilization could be a good mile or so away in any direction.

"Chaos..."He muttered, pulling himself to his feet, but trying not to put too much pressure on the injured leg. It was a pretty clean hit, fortunately, but it was painful to walk on.

Still, he started in a direction, hoping that he was going the right way. Perhaps even a very small village would grace his sight. Anyone who could help would be welcome. However, five feet in and Sonic's vision began to swim. Dots danced in front of his eyes, and his limbs began to feel like soggy noodles.

'keep goin' Sonic, you can do it. You've gone through worse than this!' He told himself, swaying slightly,'C'mon what's wrong with you? It's just a little pain, a little blood, nothin' serious...'

It didn't help that suddenly a pounding pain exploded on the back of his head. The hedgehog dropped to the ground, eyes squeezed shut. His head was killing him now...but that took his mind off his leg. What had hit him anyway? A bus?

Sonic didn't have too much time to think before the world melted into deep, comforting black abyss.

As the blue hedgehog began to become conscious, pain still lingered from the blow to his head. His mind started to rewind to catch him up with everything that had occurred. He had been...fighting Eggman...then...then Orbot had actually managed to hit him...he had been trying to find help...and then he had knocked out. Something...or more likely Someone had bashed him. But who?

He could feel himself in a more upright position, his back pressed into something rough like tree bark. His head was drooped over his chest, and his eyes refused to bend to his will of making them open. He also noticed the slight cold feelings of chains wrapped securely around his ankles and wrists, binding them together.

Someone was making noise, but as soon as he attempted to shift himself, silence reigned. Sonic had hardly distinguished what they had been saying anyways. Groaning, he tried to force at least one eye open. Great, some sort of blindfold greeted his sight. Now the hedgehog could feel it, tightened with a hard knot to the back of his head.

"Ok..."He mumbled,"Real funny...jokes over...who's there?"

For a few seconds, not a sound met his ears, making him feel a tinge nervous. Then...a metallic squeaking noise from something that needed oiling badly.

Were these badniks? Then why wasn't he in Eggman's base? That's most certainly where he would be if they were badniks. Ears standing on end, he could hear more noises from functioning robots.

His blindfold was ripped off harshly and so suddenly that the light temporarily blinded the blue blur.

"Ugh..." Cracking open one eye again, he could make out the figure of an old Swatbot unit standing over him, blindfold in hand,"Oh, I get it..."

He moved himself a little so he was straightened up just a little more. He could still hardly see, but he was pretty sure his new assumption was correct.

"Eggman sent...a squadron of you guys..to avenge those ones me..and Tails blew up the other day...riiiight..." He couldn't help but chuckle at the stupidity of that statement.

The Swatbot didn't make a sound, it's own personal way of being angry since they could not express very well, and instead stepped aside for a new figure who stepped confidently up to Sonic.

To Sonic, it was a blur of grey, red, maybe a little yellow? Tall...maybe a new Swatbot? His mind was making it hard for him to think straight.

"Got ya' now, brat!"

Sonic swore that the scratchy, painful sounding voice sounded so familiar...he just couldn't put his finger on it. His eyes shot wide open, however, when the badnik added one more thought to it's sentence.

"Ba-ha-HAHA!"


	6. Hatred

**/Ok, now let's see if I can the rest of this written up~Just a few chapters left to go! As always, please Read and Review!/**

It was really hard to realize that these old badniks were still functioning. It was even harder for Sonic to realize that due to the unfortunate of his leg having been shot, they had finally captured him. Finally.

He hadn't seen Scratch or Grounder for well over 7 years. Sure, the hedgehog had wondered about their disappearance, but knowing Eggman it was no great mystery. They had failed their Master for the last time, and had been kicked out. Except, Sonic had always expected that they had been dismantled.

Now, as he was being dragged behind the rooster badnik by a chain, he really couldn't think of anything to say. Grounder was following behind Scratch, watching Sonic with wide, almost scared eyes. He was supposed to make sure the hedgehog didn't try any 'funny business', but had given so many false alarms in the last 20 minutes that Scratch had stopped listening.

"So..."Sonic decided to try reasoning with them,"You guys are still kicking, huh?"

"Were not kicking anything!" Grounder snapped, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"What, did ya' think you could get rid of us that easily?" Scratch sniffed, giving a yank on the chain. Sonic was getting really tired of being dragged, it kind of hurt when they passed a rock or a thorny weed.

"Ow!" He yelped,"Yeah, I kinda guess I did! What I meant to ask is why."

The tall badnik huffed,"The Master kicked us out and we went to live in a robot community."

Grounder accelerated to roll beside Scratch,"Yeah, I can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees us! With the hedgehog too!"

They both chuckled happily, as Sonic put the pieces together. So, they were going to hand him over to Eggman? Great. What a positively splendid day this was turning out to be. On top of all this, his leg was still killing him. The dark blood had long since stained and matted the fur around it.

"C'mon, guys! Eggbelly will just scrap ya' anyways! There's no point going back to him."

"But we've fulfilled our purpose, spine ball! We will surely be rewarded for that! Ba-ha-haha!" The rooster smiled down at his brother,"I love it when the good guys win!"

The blue blur laughed right out loud at this,"Good guys? Haha! Are you guys serious!?"

With enough force to take the breath right out of him, he was yanked off the ground by his chain. Scratch was giving him his typical glare, while Sonic just smiled and started to laugh again.

A second later he was thrown forcefully back to the ground, where he laid on his back for a minute, trying to quiet his own chuckles. How could they possibly think they were good? Robotnik's badniks were quite the mystery.

"You're the bad guys!" Sonic smiled, starting to dust himself off.

"Nu-uh!" Grounder scowled, folding his arms,"You're the villain here!"

The blue blur pulled on his chains,"Seriously, you guys can't be serious."

He was tugged over as Scratch, who had questionably held his tongue, started to walk again. The whole situation was quite ridiculous to Sonic. Why would these guys want so badly to give him over to Eggman if he had ditched them?

"Ow! Hey! What did I ever do to you guys, huh?"

Scratch stayed quiet, seething. Grounder said nothing either, as he did not like the murderous look on the chicken badnik's face.

"I mean," Sonic continued, oblivious,"all I ever did was stop you two from crushing towns and carrying out the Doc's crazy schemes! You can't tell me that what I did was wrong and that I'm a bad guy, can ya', guys?"

"He's...he's kinda got a bit of a point, maybe?" Grounder looked back at the hedgehog. Even Grounder had realized long ago that what they had been doing was wrong. Years of living in a community where you had to be good to each other had stomped an awful lot of their 'bad' programming out of both of them. Even Scratch realized the difference between right and wrong.

But as he walked, hardly able to control his terrible temper, Scratch wanted to believe that the life they had lived years ago had been best for them. They had had a roof over their heads, someone to take care of them, and they had had purpose. Now, their pathetic lives revolved around nothing more than surviving. At least, that's how it was to Scratch.

"He has no point!" The badnik squawked, venom lining his words.

"Oh c'mon, Scratch!" Sonic snapped,"What did I ever do to you besides stop you from doing evil?"

The rooster was quite unable to hold his anger in. In one fast movement, he whipped around and punched the hedgehog over the head with one of his over sized hands. As Sonic had not been expecting such a thing, he fell onto his side, wide eyes staring surprised at the badnik while a gloved hand rubbed the tender spot on his head.

"Yeah! I did do bad stuff, I know it! I'm not that stupid!" Scratch yelled, voice cracking violently,"But what you did was worse! Much worse!"

He stepped back, silhouette cast over the abused hedgehog,"Thanks to you, we were kicked out of our own house! Just like that! No idea how to survive on our own, no idea what to do next, nothing! We weren't aloud near any Mobian villages, y'know why? Because they hated us for something we were programmed to do!"

Grounder had retreated from his brother, using his hands to cover his face. He had never seen Scratch react like this before.

"Yeah, obviously we survived, but we just can't go on for much longer!" Scratch continued, sounding almost hurt,"But the straw that broke the badniks back...was when you, for no particular reason, decided that it would be 'cool' to bomb our little colony and wipe out half of the good robots that finally got away from the Master!"

Sonic had been sitting, ears pricked and jaw slacked as the badnik rattled all this off. He had never thought that something like Scratch was capable of such...feeling. His mind reeled back to the day they had bombed those Swatbots and then randomly bombed the rest of the forest just in case. He wasn't quite sure he knew what to feel. One ear tilted down a little as silence reigned. Scratch hadn't really meant to blurt that all out, but he almost felt better now. Almost. He told himself now that everything would be at its absolute best once he delivered this pest to the Doctor.

With a yank, albeit not a harshly as the last, the hedgehog continued to drag. He wasn't sure a simple 'sorry' would suffice for them, so he kept his mouth shut and quietly thought.

Grounder caught back up with his brother,"S-Scratch? I...did you mean all that?"

Scratch stayed quiet as he walked, a clear indication.

"But...we're ok, Scratch!" The green badnik tried again, pulling hesitantly at one of his brother's tail feathers,"We've always had each other, right? An-and we've had some good times out there!"

Still nothing from the rooster, and Grounder frowned.

"Some have it worse than us..." He said wisely, deciding that it would be a good time to whip out that old phrase he had heard from his friends.

However, Scratch stayed silent and would for the rest of the trip. He was convinced that he and Grounder would be happier after this final mission, and nothing seemed to be able to change his mind.

The top of Robotnik's fortress appeared in the distance. A fortress with steel walls and Swatbots guarding very square inch of it. As the sun was setting, it looked very majestic with the flags with Eggman's logo flying high above and the large night lights beginning to turn on. Scratch hesitated, thinking about the cruelties of his owner, and wondering if anything had changed since then.

Keeping his mind steady, the badnik walked stiffly up to the gates, still dragging the disheveled hedgehog behind him.

**"Halt!" **A Swatbot from behind the gate walked up to them, hoding a large gun tightly in his hands,"**What is you're business?"**

Triumphantly, the rooster held Sonic up,"I want to see your boss!"


End file.
